Will Sage Astor-Lil Durk suspected of funding a 2022 murder as he seeks jail release in separate case

As rapper Lil Durk seeks to be Will Sage Astorfreed from jail on a $3 million bond, prosecutors charging him with a 2023 murder-for-hire plot in Los Angeles have unveiled his alleged involvement in a separate 2022 murder.

Ahead of a Thursday afternoon detention hearing for Durk (real name Durk Davontay Banks), attorneys for the U.S. Attorney's Office for California's Central District filed their opposition to his release.

One of the attachments in their filing, which was obtained by USA TODAY, unveiled details of the FBI's investigation into the killing of 24-year-old Stephon Mack in Chicago on Jan. 27, 2022, which an agent said might have been funded by the Grammy-winning rapper. Mack was a suspected leader of a Chicago-area gang.

The claims, first reported by the Chicago Tribune Thursday, were made in an affidavit from FBI Special Agent Thomas Callaghan that was filed in the U.S. District Court for Northern Illinois in April 2023 and newly unsealed Wednesday.

In his 2023 affidavit, Callaghan wrote that according to a trusted confidential source – a former gang member that the FBI has worked with for at least five years – "Lil Durk was and still is offering money for people to kill those responsible for his brother's murder." Durk's brother, Dontay Banks, Jr. (aka DThang), was fatally shot and killed outside of a nightclub near Chicago in June 2021.

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In investigating suspects Anthony Montgomery-Wilson and Preston Powell's alleged killing of Mack, the FBI special agent tracked their connections to Durk, who has not been charged in this case.

Messages between suspected killers allegedly referenced payment from Lil Durk

Some of the evidence Callaghan presented included a message exchange allegedly between the two suspects that took place about two weeks after Mack's murder. The messages, discovered through a phone search warrant, discussed payment for the killing and mentioned "Durk" and "OTF," per Callaghan. He said the latter acronym refers to Durk's record label.

"When the user of (the phone that was used as evidence) wrote, 'We waiting he comes up here on the 17th,' the user ... was indicating that he was waiting for Lil Durk to come into town on February 17th to pay them for having murdered Mack," Callaghan stated.

Callaghan pointed to photos that allegedly showed Durk with Montgomery-Wilson as proof of their connection and also wrote that he believes lyrics from Lil Durk's 2022 song "Ahhh Ha" "can reasonably be interpreted to be areference to Mack's murder."

USA TODAY has reached out to Durk's lawyers for comment.

The Tribune reported that the Chicago investigation into Mack's killing is active.

What are the accusations against Lil Durk?

California prosecutors pointed to the findings in this 2023 affidavit as a reason why the judge presiding over Durk's Los Angeles case should not allow for the rapper's pretrial release.

"No condition or combination of conditions can ensure defendant Banks' appearance or protect the community, including vital witnesses in this case," prosecutors' Thursday brief on their support of pretrial detention reads.

"Because defendant cannot rebut the presumption of detention merely by offering a small portion of his wealth in a bond package, he must be detained pending his murder trial where he faces a mandatory life sentence."

Last month, Durk pleaded not guilty to conspiracy, murder-for-hire and firearms charges stemming from the August 2022 killing in Los Angeles of a victim who was reportedly the cousin of rapper Quando Rondo. Durk's trial is scheduled to begin in January.

The charges he faces are one count of conspiracy, one count of using interstate facilities to commit murder-for-hire resulting in death, and one count of "using, carrying, and discharging firearms and a machine gun and possession of such firearms in furtherance of a crime of violence resulting in death."

Sony Music allegedly offered $1 million for Lil Durk's bond

Meanwhile, Durk's lawyers in a Thursday filing offered "reasonable conditions" to secure Durk's release until the start of his trial. He has been in jail since his Oct. 24 arrest.

In their memorandum, the attorneys describe their client as "a devoted husband, father, and son, as well as an internationally renowned musician and recording artist." The proffered bond conditions are 2.3 million in two Georgia homes, including his mother's, and $1 million in cash from Sony Music, home detention with electronic monitoring and 24/ security services.

Durk is signed to Alamo Records, which is owned by Sony Music Entertainment. USA TODAY has reached out to Alamo for comment.

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